Focus on Strategies

The school year has already started flying by , and the students are already finding their strengths and ,unfortunately, their weaknesses.

To remedy some of these weaknesses, it is my job as their teacher to help create a toolbox filled with strategies and tools that can help them when their comprehension starts to break down. I like to tell my students that in “game” day they will need to be able to take out their playbook to figure out what move is going to help them win the game. This “game” could be test day, reading independently, or even their future endeavors. They should know what works best for them, they should be their own best advocate.

Some strategies I believe help all readers…

Previewing the text– this adds schema, purpose and a mindset to what they are about to read. While they preview, they notice the genre, vocabulary and text structure they know what toolbox topull from.

Asking Questions and thinking about their reading– I am guilty. I lose track of my reading while I am reading. I think about my To Do list, my future plans, the mistakes I made five minutes ago. I could’ve read an entire page before realizing. Plot symbols, dialogue journaling/ notes or even pictures of the gist help my mind stay focused.

Inferring, predicting and drawing conclusions- oh this is a biggie !!! We make educated guesses all the time, but as soon as we call it making inferences it becomes too difficult. This has been the most difficult strategy to give my students.